Waking up at the south end of the Lost River Range, Idaho

Cyndi and I took a vacation in July.  Our destination was a joint meeting of the Idaho and Wyoming Native Plant Societies, at a campground near the Jedediah Smith Wilderness east of Driggs, Idaho.  We made a wandering path toward the rendezvous, setting out a few days early to compensate for our erratic course.  We went through Craters of the Moon National Monument on the way, and spent the night near Deadman Canyon, at the south end of the Lost River Range, in Idaho.

When we awoke we were surrounded by the sagebrush ocean and the community of life that calls this their home.  Sage Thrashers were abundant, Horned Larks flew through, and Ravens called.  I walked away from the truck without my camera and suddenly found myself surrounded by birds that I rarely see.  By that I mean I have seen the Sagebrush Sparrow only one time in my life, and the photo I took at that time was not clear enough for anyone to see what bird it was.

I ran back to the truck, fuming, and Cyndi was delighted because she had never seen a Sagebrush Sparrow at all.  I returned with my camera, and the pictures below will show you some of the ways to identify a Sagebrush Sparrow should you ever happen upon it.  It sits on sagebrush (but more often runs on the ground under sagebrush).  It has a central dark spot on its breast and a white line over the eye (supercillium, as the ornithologists would call it).

I now have an iPhone, and it does have some fun features, like the ability to take a panoramic image of something like 180 degrees.  There are many times a view like this is the only one that can tell the story.  You can click any photo in this blog, and some of them are high resolution, though honestly I usually reduce the size (both the physical size in pixels, and the file size in bytes).  You get a blog that loads faster, and I help keep photographers employed by trying to thwart digital theft and copyright infringement.

This blog, and all images contained herein are copyrighted, with all rights reserved.

Maine Sparrows

My last blog post from Maine showed off photos of gulls and told how to tell some of them apart. Another bird that can be frustratingly similar in appearance are the sparrows. Frankly, I still get a lot of them wrong. That said, there are some things you can look at and sometimes you can quickly tell which type of sparrow you are seeing from some simple observations.


The first thing I try to determine is the color or pattern of the breast feathers. I try to decide if they have a clean, evenly colored breast, or a central spot on a clean chest, or instead have streaks on the chest.

Some, like these two Chipping Sparrows in the photo above have a clean, gray breast. No streaks or spots. They also have a brown cap and a black line through the eye. There is a sparrow that looks almost the same, the American Tree Sparrow, but it will have a black dot right in the center of the chest. (And the Chipping Sparrows are summertime birds and the American Tree Sparrows are wintertime birds, so there is often more than one factor that can help with identification.)

This one is the widespread and common Song Sparrow. The photo isn't very good, but what one can look for with these is a smudgy dark central splotch on a streaky, mottled chest. A Song Sparrow has rounded tail feathers.

The faraway photo reminds me how hard it can be to see some birds, mixed in with leaves and twigs, moving around just as I'm about to see them with the binoculars, and so forth. If you have a scope, you can sometimes get good looks at a bird that isn't made wary by your proximity.

At first I thought this one was a Song Sparrow, but it breaks a couple of rules for Song Sparrow. The central smudge isn't very big and the streaks along the chest and sides of the body are very fine and delicate ... and the tail feathers are not rounded. They're spiky and pointed at the tips, making a V-shaped notch between them. The supercillium (eyebrow) is buffy, and for all these reasons I think this is another very common and widespread sparrow, the Savannah Sparrow.

Finally, though this one does not show much on the chest it displays a prominent white throat and a small yellow spot in front of the eye ... the White-throated Sparrow.

UPDATE 12/1/2009: A fellow birder looked at this and corrected me ... this is a Swamp Sparrow, not a White-throated. I'll be blogging all about it today, so go find that post and learn along with me!

I like the ones that have a name that speaks to what to look for ... like White-throated or Golden-crowned or White-crowned.

UPDATE 12/1/2009: On the other hand, the names can deceive as well. I saw a Palm Warbler in Maine, and there are no Palm trees there. The Swamp Sparrow is not always in a swamp.

There are a lot of Sparrows and learning to tell them apart can be fun if you don't let it become frustrating. Just start picking out the easy ones first, and the harder identifications will come later.

Birds, birds and more birds.

A fellow birder posted a sighting of Grasshopper Sparrows recently, and last week I went out to seek them but was not successful. I contacted him to let him know when I would have the day off, and he kindly offered to go back with me for another look. We had a great day of birding today. Thanks Louie!

We went over to Elmore County and drove dirt roads by the ghost town of Mayfield. We saw quite a few species of birds and I got some nice photos.

Horned Lark.


Swainson's Hawk. This was shooting right into the bright, white background. I wish it was nicer light because these are magnificent birds. See the brown cowl and white face? We watched one attacking a Golden Eagle as a Red-tailed Hawk circled nearby.

Common Nighthawk. I've seen them flying quite often, but this was the first time I ever saw one at rest. They would usually blend in quite well with a horizontal log, but this was right against the blue sky, so was hard to miss.


Here's a Sage Thrasher with the long curved bill.


And, an Eastern Kingbird in black and white, ready for a formal occasion.


Our goal, though, was the Grasshopper Sparrow. And, here it is! This one has the streaky chest of a juvenile. What stands out as different to me is the bill. It is dark on top and light on the bottom, and quite a thick bill. They have a complete, white ring around the eye as well. They were easily frightened, and dove for cover into the grass whenever we approached. They eat grasshoppers, and live in overgrown grassy fields.

After seeing these birds, we took the long way home, so we could look at the mudflat at the edge of Mountain Home Reservoir, to look at migrating shorebirds. I have a tough time identifying them, as many look very similar, but Louie showed me how he can tell the difference between a Semipalmated Sandpiper and a Western Sandpiper.

If I understood correctly, then the Semipalmated Sandpiper is the smaller one at the left, with a slightly shorter bill and dark face. They usually are walking along the mud, while the Western Sandpipers are wading in the water. I think this one is in the water because I'm trying to sneak closer to take a photo.